Despite being in custody for more than two weeks pending the outcome of his bail application, former Arthur Kaplan director Hoosein Mohamed, 36, was able to WhatsApp instructions to an IT contractor and order the reactivation of his work emails.
This has emerged in a supplementary affidavit submitted to the Randburg magistrate’s court during Mohamed’s fourth appearance on Monday after his arrest for allegedly assaulting liquidator Laila Motala, 34, and pointing his firearm in her face on June 1.
Arthur Kaplan went into liquidation in December. Earlier this month an estimated R50m worth of jewellery and watches went missing from several stores.
Motala had initially intended to leave the nationwide string of stores operating as normal while she wrapped up the business.
However, after early indications from a forensic audit on the business led her to suspect mismanagement, Motala decided to dismiss the top management. She visited the Arthur Kaplan head office in Sandton’s The Atrium on June 1, with six private security officials to inform management of her decision and take possession of laptops and documents belonging to the company.
During a heated clash with staff, Mohamed’s personal assistant, Ammaarah Ismail, 22, called him, and within about 20 minutes he arrived at the offices. While Mohamed has told the court that he was manhandled by Motala’s security, fell on the floor and his gun dropped out, her version is that he viciously grabbed her, threw her against a glass wall, pointed his firearm in her face and threatened to kill her.
Mohamed was arrested soon after and has been in custody since. His legal team has been fighting for his bail. Motala, however, claims to be in fear for her life and has been fighting to have him kept in custody.
The jewellery is believed to have been taken from the stores at about the same time.
This is deeply concerning to me as the liquidator and complainant in two matters. I have taken over the email servers of AKJ deliberately after Hoosein’s arrest to prevent him from accessing it and deleting relevant emails and accompanying documentation.
— Liquidator Laila Motala
Mohamed’s legal team successfully applied to the court for him to be held at Sandton police cells instead of at Johannesburg prison as is normal protocol. This, they said, is to enable him to access his own medical doctors as he has a medical condition that requires him to have easy access to treatment.
After Mohamed’s arrest Motala, secured a court interdict allowing her to search the properties linked to Mohamed and his closest associates for the missing jewellery and watches, but to not avail.
In a supplementary affidavit submitted this week, Motala told the court that on Thursday June 15, Mohamed sent a WhatsApp to Arthur Kaplan IT contractor Tyler Brown, instructing him to reactivate his disabled email account, or divert it to a new address “as all the brands email me on that add”.
Mohammed was referring to top name jewellery names such as Rolex, Hublot, Tag Heuer and Rado — all stocked by the prominent jewellery chain.
“This is deeply concerning to me as the liquidator and complainant in two matters,” Motala said in her affidavit. “I have taken over the email servers of AKJ deliberately after Hoosein’s arrest to prevent him from accessing it and deleting relevant emails and accompanying documentation,” Motala told the court, adding that the estimated total of the losses suffered by AKJ to be about R50m.
Motala also said in her affidavit that Mohamed had in February signed an undertaking not to carry a firearm into the company’s office at The Atrium in Sandton after an alleged previous assault.
Motala said the incident was reported to the Liberty Property Group that manages The Atrium offices, and their attorneys issued a ban on Mohamed entering the premises.
She said Mohamed fought the ban and on February 1 signed an undertaking to not carry a firearm while at The Atrium, in Sandton City, Nelson Mandela Square or any other Sandton City complex.
Motala said that by entering The Atrium with his firearm, Mohamed had reneged on the agreement in terms of which he would now have a court order and lifetime ban imposed on him.
To counter Motala’s claims, defence counsel Laurance Hodes SC handed the court a transcript of WhatsApp messages between her and a security official she contacted and asked for video footage of the alleged looting of the Arthur Kaplan stores.
Hodes told the court that Motala’s comments that “you can even edit it” and “I need to keep him in jail to rescue this estate” were evidence of her “abusing the system” and proof that she was more interested in rescuing the business and did not genuinely fear for her life.
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